


I Shall Give You a Thimble

by Shadow_Chaser



Series: In Blinded Skies [5]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Daredevil (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: But ships will be speculated upon by other characters, Episode: s01e01 Into the Ring, Episode: s02e17 Melinda, Gen, Minor Matt Murdock/Kate Bishop allusions, Skye continues her hacking attempts, Skye gets a reality check, St. Agnes Orphanage, This series will never turn into Matt Murdock/Skye
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-31
Updated: 2015-09-08
Packaged: 2018-04-12 07:12:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,478
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4470080
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadow_Chaser/pseuds/Shadow_Chaser
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Skye gets a reality check and starts to grow-up in St. Agnes Orphanage as relationships come to a head and are put to the test.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Recess was no longer an option, but lunch time was an opportunity to sit by the swings and playground that was right next to the school Skye had enrolled her friends at. It was also one of the few times besides at night during group dinner, that she could talk to Katie and Matt. But for today's lunch she was hunched over one of the computers in the school's library, chewing her lower lip as she stared at the lines of code. She knew that Matt and maybe Katie would be wondering where she was.

Money was getting tight; a few open windows behind the lines of code she was seeing, telling her that much. She had been at the school Mr. and Mrs. Burke had put her in for the last two years. She had only learned that the numbers involved in transferring money and things just the past year, after she was able to get Matt and Katie in with her. She had found it on the Mother Superior's records under her own name. But still she understood that the decrease in numbers meant that pretty soon if there was a negative sign next to the shrinking numbers or zeroes, it would be bad for her.

And she knew that the numbers were only dwindling because of her friends. Because she wanted them to go to the same school as her; to get them away from the bullies that would hurt them at the more public school where the orphanage kids usually went. She bit her lip as she glanced down at the piece of paper she had taken from the Mother Superior's filing cabinet. To any other person, it had a bunch of numbers that was similar to the bank one she found in her own file; but it was from the file it came from that made her chew her lower lip in worry.

This was Matt's money.

An uncomfortable feeling squirmed in her stomach as she stared at the numbers that was Matt's. It was a lot of zeroes, even though she had long known that Matt was probably rich. He had first arrived at St. Agnes with his own private room, and even after he returned, he still shared a double room with one other person. Those were clear signs of someone at the orphanage who had come in with a lot of money. Still, she had not exactly realized how much money until it was staring at her from the electronic screen right at the moment.

Her fingers twitched in temptation, a few key strokes, a couple of open windows and into the backdoors of the bank and she knew she could easily transfer a couple of those zeros into her own account. They wouldn't be missed, just a couple of zeroes in the vast sums of zeroes. She doubted that no one except for the Mother Superior and herself knew how much money there was in his account. Skye bit her lower lip and resisted the twitch of fingers. This was still Matt's money. And those zeroes were needed elsewhere.

She set her fingers down on the keyboard and began to type away, sending command lines and new routing numbers, watching as the zeroes stayed steady for a moment, before the suddenly showed a new number. It would be noticed if anyone else now peeked into the account, but at least it would stop the shrinking of her own zeroes. She closed out of the windows, logged off of the VPN she had used to mask her own trail and pushed her chair back, breathing out quietly as she stared at the blank screen. It was done and maybe, there wouldn't be as much of a drain now.

Standing up, she took one more look at the blank screen before heading out of the library, the apprehension in her warring with the fact of what she had just done. It was for the best...she reasoned silently. A quick glance at the clock told her that she had about fifteen minutes left for lunch. Maybe she would be able to find Matt and Katie and eat something quick before her next class. On her way out of the library, she glanced up at the security camera that monitored the entrance and pretended to tug at a book she had “borrowed” - in reality a book she actually _had_ borrowed, but rather two weeks ago and a bit overdue. This had been the only security camera she was aware of and she figured it didn't hurt to look like she had been browsing books during her lunch period.

Skye, however, failed to realize that there was another active security camera in the library itself, on the second floor, far corner, behind what looked like a reflective mirror designed to prevent people from running into each other in the corners. It was pointed directly at the computer stations in the library itself.

* * *

Katie and Matt were not at the playground eating lunch as she had hoped and Skye sighed a bit dejectedly. She had a few minutes left before she knew the bell was going to ring. Maybe she had missed them and they had eaten faster than her – that was the most likely thing to happen. Or one of them got detention – though she suspected probably more Katie because she tended to get into fights and generally swear at others whenever they offended her. She found it funny each time, especially since it annoyed and made the Sisters gasp like they had never heard a swear come out of her mouth before.

But sometimes she worried for Katie. Her friend had been distant lately and sometimes wouldn't talk to her. She figured maybe Katie was going through puberty, something she had learned all about a couple of years ago during the mandatory health classes. Something about hormones and mood swings, but Skye didn't quite understand what the teacher meant at that time. She did feel the whole 'you're-body-will-change' thing just a little over a year ago, but it only made her cranky a few days during the month. Katie seemed more than cranky and Skye wondered if she had done something to make her friend mad at her. She seemed fine on some days, talking excitedly about homework, or even the people she found cute and hot.

Skye sort of understood what her friend was saying, but she still felt weird seeing her classmates her age as either 'hot' or 'not' as Katie usually put it in so many words. She was certainly fascinated by and occasional unusual hair color, feature or even kind eyes, but she wouldn't start classifying them as 'hot' or 'not.' It was just plain weird to her at the moment. At least Matt seemed to understand what Katie was saying, and it seemed to make her happy that one of her friends understood her, so Skye left it at that. It was also why she occasionally pulled Matt aside to ask him to see if Katie was mad at her, since she couldn't get a straight answer or even an answer at that out of her friend whenever they were together at school or even back at the Orphanage.

She had hoped that telling Katie what she had done by transferring Matt out of her accounts and into his own would make her happier that they would be able to stay at the school a little longer. Katie always seemed to grumble a lot whenever money was involved. Maybe it would make her grumble a bit less. Grumbling Katie was fun and all whenever the Sisters and Mother Superior was involved, but grumbling Katie at her was not really fun. For one thing, whenever Katie's bad words were turned onto her and while her friend always said she was just joking, sometimes it didn't feel like a joke to Skye. Sometimes it hurt.

She sighed as she walked into the school, throwing away her paper bag that had carried her lunch. She would find Katie after school when they were all back at the Orphanage and tell her what she had done. It wasn't the most ideal place since there was a chance a Sister overheard them, but it was something she really wanted to tell her friend. A muffled noise made her snap out of her thoughts as she stopped and frowned, wondering what the noise was. No one was usually in the M-Wing at this time of the day, the section of the school that usually housed the choir, marching bands, orchestra, fine arts, and theater section of the school. Most of the M-Wing's classes were either early in the morning before all main classes, or later in the afternoon, a little before school was officially out. The only people that traveled through M-Wing at this time were either the Aquaculture students or the Agriculture ones, and that was usually to their bus that would transport them to Chelsea Piers or a little bit outside of New York City to a nearby farm in Duchess County.

The muffled sound came again and curiosity got the better of Skye as she glanced down the hall towards what she thought was the source. It was not uncommon for newer students to be locked in various classrooms or even lockers by older students in the school. She almost had it happen to her once when she had her first days after Mr. and Mrs. Burke enrolled her in the school. She had managed to wiggle her way out of it by sheer luck than being stuffed into a locker. It almost happened again a second time, but Matt had stopped the bullies and Katie had helped her out of the tuba case she was almost locked into.

It was probably some poor new student who had the misfortune of getting shoved into a tuba case or one of the marching band's lockers for their instruments or something, she supposed as she followed the source of the muffled sound. Though, this late in the school year, it was odd for the school bullies to be shoving newer students into lockers and whatnot. She mentally shrugged as the sound echoed again. This time though, she thought it sounded more like a moan than anything else.

She paused as the sound echoed again, followed by what she heard sounded a little like sucking sounds. Heat flushed to her face as she blinked in slight mortification as she realized what kinds of sounds she was hearing. One of Katie's friends had sneaked in some bootlegged rated-R movies a couple of months ago and they had watched some of them under the covers of night, giggling to themselves at the ridiculous garbled English translations some of them while giggling some more at the scenes which characters were shown with nudity. Skye had thought it was like her health classes, except in a far more graphic material than seeing a clinical analysis of body parts for both boys and girls.

There were at least two someones who were making out in what was the classroom that she had paused next to and she considered backing away just to leave them to their privacy. Still, she glanced at the classroom clock she saw from her vantage point outside the closed door. She really didn't want whomever in there to get into trouble as she knew that the band classroom they picked would have the band director walking in pretty soon. There was another muffled grunting moan and Skye sighed, adverting her eyes as she took the last few steps and reached out to the door handle. She wouldn't peek since she actually really didn't want to know how far of a state of undress either participant was in, and it made her a bit shy to see others like that.

Pushing open the door a crack, she started, “You guys should-” Contrary to what she thought, the sounds immediately stopped and Skye could not help but look up-

And froze.

She had never thought of Matt in any sense of the fact that he was like a brother to her, someone she took care of and made sure wasn't hurt much by the bullies who pushed him around at the Orphanage. Matt was always there for her, a shoulder to talk to, someone she could confide in. Someone she shared giggles, laughs, and jokes with, and occasionally her lunch or his lunch. He was someone whom she gave Blankie to, because he would not stop screaming or crying and while it was annoying, it also made her want to see that he would stop it. First it had been because of the noise factor, second because she hated to see anyone cry. At least that was what she reasoned. He was her friend.

But for some odd reason, she could feel something in her breaking, something she didn't know that _could_ break as she stared at Katie and Matt. The latter of the two was pinned against the wall, glasses askew, hair mused up by what looked like a very thorough kissing by Katie if her hands in his hair was any indication. A half-smile, the same half-smile she remembered him always giving _her_ each time they sat next to each other, was on his face and she blinked once, twice.

Skye never backed down from anything; but just this once, she did the only thing she could find herself doing. She fled.

 


	2. Chapter 2

Skye knew that the Sisters and even some of the others were giving her odd looks as she quickly finished her dinner and retreated back into the privacy of her room, closing the door behind her. Night had long fallen and she threw her backpack next to the seat at her desk before she flopped onto her bed in an unceremonious heap. It had been hard to  _not see_ what she had seen; to try to purge her brain of the fact that Katie and Matt had been making out in that classroom. The thought of them doing that with each other had positively  _never_ crossed her mind, before today.

She sighed and threw an arm across her eyes, dragging the familiar rough woolen feel of Blankie across her face with it. Taking a deep breath of Blankie's musty smell, she thought she could still smell hints of what she had long identified as Matt on Blankie. It was a fresh, clean smell, similar to the laundry that the Sisters had them do floor by floor on Fridays through Sundays. But she had identified it as just Matt. A thought crossed her mind. Did she like Matt  _that_ way? The way that she had seen Katie and her friends giggle over magazine covers?

They certainly had teased her for her lack of knowledge about who were the 'it' guys that were hot at the time, so she had randomly picked some dirty-blond haired blue-eyed actor whom she suppose was cute. Then they had teased her about her 'crush' on the blond-haired boy and though she had blushed at their teasing, it was because of the more uncomfortable feeling about liking someone so far removed that it had felt odd.

Then, they proceeded to rip into her supposed 'crush' as to why he was so not better than the hottest 'it' guy and she was confused. Did they also not giggle and talk about him earlier before moving on to the next guy? She didn't get what Katie and her friends were on about and so had wandered off to join Matt in one of the study rooms at the Orphanage. She had been far more comfortable with his quiet silence as his fingers deftly moved across his Braille textbooks and it allowed her a chance to work without the distracting noise of the other children running up and down the halls of the Orphanage.

She had remembered Matt asking her what was wrong and she had told him nothing was wrong, but he had seemingly only stared at her with his ruby-covered eyes. She wondered if he somehow knew she was lying, but that was impossible – he couldn't see. She had then explained the silly game Katie and her friends had been subjecting her to, about who was 'hot' and who was 'not' and said that she thought she got the game, but then it got confusing. It then turned into her parroting back what she had overheard from Katie and her friends about the qualities that made it a 'hot' guy versus a 'not' guy before Matt had offered up some technicalities and was apparently poking holes into the logic Katie and her friends had come up with.

That had been more fun, as then she debated with Matt about what made each guy 'hot' versus 'not' based on the biological factors that she had never taken into consideration. Matt had then explained that for the required science course for his studies this year was Biology and his teacher had started to explain the psychology of biological factors to help them understand the different aspects of various animal species.

Skye sighed again and dragged Blankie off of her own face, her fingers absently twirling the patches and rips he had encountered for the last several years of ownership. She did not think she had what Katie had described as a 'crush' on Matt, but she couldn't help but wonder who was she going to share things with now that it was definite Katie was 'together' with Matt.

She knew that a lot of the older girls did not like other girls hanging with their boyfriends or even on their so-called 'crushes'. She had seen it at school, girls bullying other girls who were even remotely friendly with their 'crushes' be it other boys or on the rare occasion, other girls. It seemed that the boys were far more lenient about it. She knew because she had randomly asked Matt about it after their discussion on 'crushes' and he had only said that he wanted her to be happy, that was it. He had given her that same smile she had seen on his face when Katie had been kissing him today, and had left her there after the bell rang.

She was over-thinking it. She had to be. Why did she felt like someone had cut a piece of her off when she knew that the two were together? She knew she had to stay away now...and that was the problem. She liked running into Matt and sharing with him the exciting things she had learned or even something she had discovered that she figured he might not know. She liked sharing things with him but-

Skye squeezed her eyes shut for a brief moment and tried very hard to picture herself like Katie kissing Matt-

-Ew. -No.

An unexpected giggle let loose from her throat as she opened her eyes and felt a rush of heat to her face. No, she couldn't imagine it, it was so...weird...so...no... It was like having Jon give her a gigantic rose in a filled up Coke liter bottle in 4 th Grade when she had thought it was for their teacher instead. It left her flustered, embarrassed, and she didn't know what to say except for thank you. The next day, Jon had held her hand the whole day and she thought that they were officially boyfriend and girlfriend, but it had felt weird when he kissed her on the cheek. She had felt so shy at the attention he fawned on her, getting her pencils, getting her things. It was like she was suddenly an invalid and while she was grateful, she didn't know what to  _do_ with the attention.

Katie had teased her so much for that, but she also remembered her and Matt watching her and Jon carefully while they had been at the Orphanage. Thankfully, Jon had been re-homed during the summer and though she was sad, she had cheerfully waved him goodbye.

She shook her head as she stared up at the ceiling. She liked Matt, but she didn't know if she  _liked_ him enough to venture into what Katie was doing. Maybe a peck on the cheek? But...she would have liked to have hugged Matt, and maybe...have him smile for her with that half-smile?

She sighed and thought about getting out of bed to at least do some homework, but before she could move, her door suddenly slammed open. Skye instinctively winced against the harsh hallway light spilling into her room and raised an hand to shield her eyes.

“Stay away from him,” the words had been spoken so harshly, in such a low angry tone that for a second Skye could not identify the speaker before her eyes adjusted and she saw Katie's familiar form in the middle of her doorway.

“Katie?” she was confused, even more confused at the sudden furious look her friend had on her face.

“Didn't you hear me,  _bitch_ , stay away from him,” Katie's eyes were hooded and the harsh hallway light against her back made it hard for Skye to really see her. She pulled herself up to a sitting position, Blankie pooling at her lap.

“He's mine and not yours anymore, got it?” she continued icily.

“But-”

“Don't 'but' me  _Skye_ ,” she had never heard her own name being used in such a way and it was like being slapped in the face with it. “You've had him all to your own self all these fucking years and leading him like a lovesick puppy. It makes me  _sick_ that you had that, you know?! Thought you'd come clean about your fucking 'crush' on him when we were playing rounds of 'hot' and 'not', but no, you're just too fucking coy about that shit, aren't ya? Had to try to keep him to yourself and not even learn to  _share_ . You know that's about the Orphanage, right? We  _share_ .”

“Matt didn't follow me around-”

Katie laughed, long and harsh and Skye flinched away from it, clutching Blankie tighter in her hands. She didn't like this...didn't like the nasty tone that her friend was using on her. She wanted her to suddenly say 'sike! Got ya! I'm just kidding' or some variation of it, but Katie only glared at her.

“Oh get off your fucking high horse, Skye. You act like you're so fucking oblivious to what the fuck is going on, but I know better.”

She suddenly lunged forward and Skye yelped, lifting her hands up to protect her face, but suddenly felt the coolness of air where Blankie's warmth used to be. It only took her a moment to realize that Katie had taken Blankie. She immediately reached out, but stopped as a horrific ripping sound filled the air.

Katie had torn Blankie in half.

Skye could only feel her jaw drop in horror, tears pricking in the corner of her eyes as Katie laughed again, an ugly sound, and took the two pieces of Blankie and ripped again. She whimpered, “No...please...Katie-”

“Stay away from him,” her friend demanded and Skye could only mutely nod, as Katie grabbed the four pieces that were now Blankie. “He's mine now, not yours, you fucking silly little girl. And don't you fucking dare tell him about this.”

“I-I'll stay away, a-all right?” she did not want to hear that god-awful sound again, “I'll be good, okay? Katie? I'll stay away- No, please wait! Katie don't!”

The ripping sound stopped and Skye watched in mute horror as the rip had almost rendered whatever was left of Blankie in more pieces. She knew that she should be angry, but horror had completely overwhelmed that. Katie suddenly tossed something at her. She flinched and nearly batted whatever was thrown at her aside before realizing it was pieces of what used to be Blankie. “...No...” she whispered softly as she saw that Blankie was so ragged and so ripped up from just those few tears. “...No...my...Blankie...”

“You're not a fucking child anymore Skye, grow up,” Katie said nastily at her before she suddenly left. The harsh light of the hallway showed the damage that had been done to Blankie in all of its grisly glory and Skye could not help the tears that fell from her eyes. She reached out with a tentative hand and felt the roughened fabric that used to be her companion for so many years.

Why did Katie do that? Why? She thought...she thought she was her friend. But now...

Skye was suddenly aware of the familiar tap-tap sound of Matt's cane coming up the stairs and headed towards her room before she scrambled from her bed. She tripped, her feet tangling themselves in the ragged pieces of what used to be Blankie and landed with a painful 'oof!' But scrambled up again and slammed her door close and locked it as the tap-tap sound got closer-

“Skye?” Matt's voice cracked a little, but seemed to even out as it had for the last few months. It was deep, far deeper than she had ever heard him speak before what the health classes had said as puberty, had hit her friends.

Skye pushed herself up against her door, flicking her gaze up to make sure that she had locked it and rubbed her right shin, tears forming at the corner of her eyes again.

“Skye? You wanna open up? I need to talk to you-”

“Go away,” she muttered through the unexpected lump that was building in her throat. She sucked in a gasping sob as the tears tracked down her face and swiped at them angrily.

“Are you crying?”

“No!” she cursed her own body's instincts as it heaved in another almost silent sob, “go away!” She coughed and rubbed her hurting shin harder, wondering if she could make it hurt so much that she could stop crying. “Matt, go away!” She slammed a fist against the door, making it rattle and heard the small sound of his cane tapping backwards, a sure sign that she had startled him.

There was a few seconds of silence from the other side and Skye suddenly found herself holding her breath. She did not know why she wanted him to stay, even if it was on the other side of the door, because she had promised Katie that she would stay away- And just as quickly, the silence was broken by the soft footsteps of his sneakers and cane moving away. She waited, listening and straining her ears until she could hear no more. She then slowly drew up her knees to her chest and dipped her head against them.

Skye cried.

 

~END~

 


End file.
